U.S. ARMY REPORT URGES PREPARATIONS FOR TROOPS TO OCCUPY “MEGACITIES”

A U.S. Army report warns that American troops need to be prepared to enter New York City and other global “megacities” in order to prevent civil unrest, political uprisings and protect key infrastructure and natural resources in the national interest.

The report, entitled Megacities and the United States Army (PDF), was released by the Chief of Staff of the Army, Strategic Studies Group.

Cautioning that the power of national governments to deal with the problems caused by increasing urbanization and the growth of megacities is “diminishing,” the report notes, “It is inevitable that at some point the United States Army will be asked to operate in a megacity and currently the Army is ill-prepared to do so.”

Given increasing concerns about martial law and the militarization of domestic law enforcement in the United States, some will be concerned to learn that one of these “megacities” where U.S. troops may operate is New York City.

Indeed, the report notes that, “It is plausible that the Army could be called to act in one of these places tomorrow. As their size and importance grows, it becomes probable.”

Reasons given for why U.S. troops may be sent into major cities to deal with social dislocation include “unrest,” “income disparity,” “natural disasters,” and “illicit networks” who challenge state power. According to the report, all of these problems will create “friction which compels future military intervention” that “will require boots on the ground.”

The document also spells out how many of these megacities represent “conduits for access to critical natural resources, like petroleum,” resource trends which represent “strategic key terrain in any future crisis that requires U.S. military intervention.”

“Such conditions would likely call for some form of outside intervention. If the demand signal or threat poses enough risk to U.S. national interest, military intervention is a likely scenario,” states the report.

In dealing with unrest or upheaval in megacities, the document notes that controlling urban populations physically is virtually impossible and that, “Virtual isolation is even more improbable given cell phone saturation in urban environments worldwide and global interconnectedness through the World Wide Web.”

The report warns that the “Army is not prepared for operations in these unique operational environments,” concluding that “the Army is currently unprepared” to respond to strategic surprises that could emerge as a result of rapidly growing megacities.

The document lists a number of recommendations to prepare U.S. troops for intervention in global megacities, one of which includes building, “civil-military partnerships to facilitate training, testing and experimentation in large U.S. cities.”

As we highlighted in a previous report, part of the U.S. Army’s preparations for occupying megacities also include the neutralization of groups “who can influence the lives of the population while undermining the authority of the state,” a chillingly vague description which could easily be applied to political dissidents.

Given recent Army training manuals which detail preparations for “full scale riots” within the United States during which troops may be forced to engage in a “lethal response” to deal with crowds of demonstrators, the fact that U.S. troops are being prepared to occupy major cities in the near future is extremely concerning.

In light of warnings that ISIS terrorists are preparing to cross over from Mexico and conduct attacks on U.S. soil, many will question why the Army is focusing on internal occupation of cities when America’s porous border represents a far more pressing security threat.

Credit to Infowars

EXPLAINED: Why the U.S. is Partnering with Iran to Fight ISIS

If The Economy Is Recovering, Why Is The Labor Force Participation Rate At A 36 Year Low?

Should we be concerned that the percentage of Americans that are either working or looking for work is the lowest that it has been in 36 years?  In August, an all-time record high 92,269,000 Americans 16 years of age and older did not "participate in the labor force".  And when you throw in the people that are considered to be "in the labor force" but are not currently employed, that pushes the total of working age Americans that do not have jobs to well over 100 million.  Yes, it may be hard to believe, but there are more than 100 million working age Americans that are not employed right now.  Needless to say, this is not a sign of a healthy economy, and it is a huge reason why dependence on the government has soared to absolutely unprecedented levels.  When people can't take care of themselves, they need someone else to take care of them.  If the percentage of people in the labor force continues to decline like it has been, what is that going to mean for the future of our society?

The chart below shows the changes in the civilian labor force participation rate since 1980.  As you can see, the rate steadily rose between 1980 and 2000, but since then it has generally been declining.  In particular, this decline has greatly accelerated since the beginning of the last recession...

We have never seen an extended precipitous decline of this nature before.  But instead of admitting that we have a very serious problem on our hands, many mainstream economists are dismissing this decline as "structural in nature".  For example, check out the following excerpt from a recent Reuters article...

A paper published on Thursday by the Brookings Institution, a Washington-based think tank, suggested the decline was primarily due to an aging population and other structural factors, and concluded the labor force would continue to shrink.

But there is a major flaw in this analysis.  It turns out that older Americans are the only group for which employment numbers have actually been going up.  I really like how Zero Hedge made this point the other day...

Well that's very odd, because it was only two months ago that the Census wrote the following [5]: "Many older workers managed to stay employed during the recession; in fact, the population in age groups 65 and over were the only ones not to see a decline in the employment share from 2005 to 2010 (Figure 3-25)... Remaining employed and delaying retirement was one way of lessening the impact of the stock market decline and subsequent loss in retirement savings."

Yes, Baby Boomers are hitting retirement age.

But that does not explain why the labor force participation rate numbers for younger groups have been going down.

Each month, the U.S. economy has to add somewhere between 100,000 and 150,000 jobs just to keep up with population growth.  Since job creation has been tepid at best in recent years, the only way that the government has been able to get the official unemployment rate to steadily "go down" has been to remove millions upon millions of Americans from the labor force.

According to the official government numbers, since 2007 768,000 jobs have been added to the economy, but a whopping 13 million Americans have been added to the numbers of those "not in the labor force".

As a result, the official unemployment rate has magically been "declining".

But the truth is that our employment crisis has not been solved at all.

And it isn't just the number of jobs that we need to be concerned about.  We are also dealing with a multi-year decline in the quality of our jobs.  In fact, the Wall Street Journal just reported that 34 percent of all U.S. workers are "freelancers" now...

More evidence that this isn’t your parents’ labor market: Roughly one in three U.S. workers is now a freelancer.

Fifty-three million Americans, or 34% of the nation’s workforce, qualify as freelancers, according to a new report from the Freelancers Union, a nonprofit organization, and Elance-oDesk Inc., a company that provides platforms for freelancers to find work. These individuals include independent contractors, temps, and moonlighters, among others.

In other words, about a third of all workers in the country are "temps" at this point.

I don't know about you, but to me that is an extremely alarming statistic.

If the economy really was recovering, this would not be happening.

And as millions upon millions of Americans are being forced out of the official labor force, an increasing number of people are turning to the underground economy.

For example, in some of our major cities we are witnessing a rise in the number of street vendors.  The following is an excerpt from a recentLos Angeles Times article entitled "More Angelenos are becoming street vendors amid weak economy"...

Sitting at her street vending booth with products arrayed neatly on a sequined purple tablecloth, Jackie Lloyd reflects nostalgically on the days when she had a steady salary and regular hours.

That was four years ago, before the 39-year-old was laid off from her job as an elementary school cafeteria worker and mounting bills forced her to venture into self-employment.

Now the Pico-Union resident hops from location to location, selling body oils, shea butter, soap and incense. She moves when nearby businesses complain or she feels unsafe.

Some days, her sales bring in $150. Others, they don't break $20.

In order to have a strong middle class, we need middle class jobs.

If our labor force participation rate continues to fall and the quality of our jobs continues to decline, the middle class will continue to shrink.  For much more on this, please see my previous article entitled "30 stats to show to anyone that does not believe the middle class is being destroyed".

But our authorities never seem to want to admit what our real problems are.

Instead, they love to come up with alternative theories for our economic struggles.

One of the latest theories being put forward by the Federal Reserve is that the economy is not moving along like it should because ordinary Americans are "hoarding money"...

One of the great mysteries of the post-financial crisis world is why the U.S. has lacked inflation despite all the money being pumped into the economy.

The St. Louis Federal Reserve thinks it has the answer: A paper the central bank branch published this week blames the low level of money movement in large part on consumers and their "willingness to hoard money."

This seems completely absurd to me.

From what I can see, most families are just doing their best to survive from month to month these days.

I certainly don't see a lot of people "hoarding money".

What about you?

What do you think?

Please feel free to share your thoughts by posting a comment below...

Credit to Economic Collapse

NICARAGUA RESIDENTS SHAKEN AS BRIGHT METEORITE EXPLODES SUNDAY LEAVING 39 FOOT CRATER (SEPT 7, 2014)

Forced Population Control: Present and Future

Commentary by: Roger Landry (TLB)

We at The Liberty Beacon project constantly push back against eugenics, genocide or programed population reduction, and will continue to do so going forward. We know, given the total population, and considering the total arable land mass of this planet, that this planet is far from overpopulated … but is that an inevitability?

Our global resources are finite and dwindling at an alarming rate, but to sacrifice your legacy, your ability to choose when and if you shall have a family, and leave this decision to the mercy of a cold, calculating, privileged global bureaucrat, is something that most of us would rebel against.

What will the criteria be for the granted privilege of parenthood, intellect, health, social standing, longevity, racial purity? And what assurance will we have that this privilege will not be corrupted and confined to those who consider themselves elite, as we already see in the wholesale corruption and complicity that festers in our governments today?

We suspect (and in many cases can prove) the mechanisms of population reduction are already in use on the global population with the USA not only immune to none of this, but is in fact the focus of many of said mechanisms. Among these we can include vaccines, GMO’s, pharmaceutical drugs, Geo-engineering and bio-toxins (just to name the top dogs). We have no say in any of this, and the poisons perpetuating this project are all legal and in many cases recommended by our very government and many other governments.

This is being facilitated by such entities as the UN (Agenda 21), WHO, Big Pharma, Monsanto, FDA, EPA, CDC etc… Research the risinginfertility rate in the USA for a real shock, and the rest of the globe is not far behind. Your right to procreate may be fading fast without your knowledge or consent, driven by the ideals of this self proclaimed elite.

Liberty is our root drive in TLB, the liberty to make the decisions that affect us personally and our families. But what if these decisions combine to have a serious impact on the world as a whole, then what is theanswer? I for one would never acquiesce my right or ability to procreate, to a global corporatocracy.… But for how much longer will this be a decision I will be allowed to make.

What we present to you here (attached below) is a different view and one we do not necessarily agree with. We present it to you because our mandate at TLB is to eradicate programed ignorance through education, and if you don’t know what those you disagree with are thinking, considering or planning, then you can never defend or push back against it until is is too late.

The information in this (attached) commentary is compelling, and some of the argument is based on a solid foundation, while other concepts are based on future technological innovations. It should all be considered to be within the realm of possibility, either today or in the near future. And those possibilities all directly effect the future of humanity in both positive or catastrophic fashions.

We are entering the realm of “the global good” infringing on personal rights and freedoms in a very large and dominant way, and once we traverse this path there is no turning back … outside bloody revolution.

This is a topic that must be discussed and debated if we are ever to leave a viable planet and peaceful society to the children we may or may-not be allowed to have.

Please read on …

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In this transhumanist future, should everyone still be allowed to have unlimited children whenever they want?

EDITOR’S NOTE: THE ABOVE ARTICLE IS A RESPONSE TO THE GLOBALIST INSPIRED ARTICLE, BASED UPON DEPOPULATION, LISTED BELOW. 

It’s time to consider restricting human breeding

By: Zoltan Istvan

Given the number of children that starve each day, dwindling planetary resources and the coming transhumanist era, it might be time to consider restricting human breeding, argues futurist Zoltan Istvan in this guest post

A few years ago, I was at a doctor party, the kind where tired residents drop by in their scrubs, everyone drinks red wine, and discussion centers around medical industry gripes. I wandered over to a group of obstetricians and listened in. One tall blonde woman said something that caught my attention: with 10,000 kids dying everyday around the world from starvation, you’d think we’d put birth control in the water.

The controversial idea to restrict or control human breeding is not new. In 1980, Hugh LaFollette, Ethics professor at the University of South Florida, wrote a seminal essay on the topic titled Licensing Parents. Since then, philosophers and even some politicians have considered the idea, especially in light of China, the most populated country in the world, implementing a one-child policy that is in effect today.

For most people in the 21st Century, however, the idea of restricting the right to have offspring for any reason whatsoever seems blatantly authoritarian. Telling a person when and how many children they can have violates just about every core value we possess in a free society. It’s a thorny issue made even more complicated by the coming transhumanist era, which is almost upon us.

The transhumanist age — where radical science and technology will revolutionize the human being and experience — will eventually bring us indefinite lifespans, cyborgization, cloning, and even ectogenesis, where people use artificial wombs outside of their bodies to raise fetuses.

Breeding controls and measures make more sense when you consider that some leading life extensionist scientists believe we will conquer human mortality in the next 20 years. Already, in 2010, scientists had some success with stopping and  reversing ageing in mice. The obvious question is: In this transhumanist future, should everyone still be allowed to have unlimited children whenever they want?

The philosophical conundrum of controlling human procreation rests mostly on whether all human beings are actually responsible enough to be good parents and can provide properly for their offspring. Clearly, untold numbers of children — for example, those millions that are slaves in the illegal human trafficking industry — are born to unfit parents.

In an attempt to solve this problem and give hundreds of millions of future kids a better life, I cautiously endorse the idea of licensing parents, a process that would be little different than getting a driver’s licence. Parents who pass a series of basic tests qualify and get the green light to get pregnant and raise children. Those applicants who are deemed unworthy — perhaps because they are homeless, or have drug problems, or are violent criminals, or have no resources to raise a child properly and keep it from going hungry — would not be allowed until they could demonstrate they were suitable parents.

Transhumanist Hank Pellissier, founder of the Brighter Brains Institute, also supports the idea, insisting on humanitarian grounds that it would bring a measured sense of responsibility to raising kids. In an essay, he notes professor and bioethics pioneer Joseph Fletcher saying that “many births are accidental”. Accidentally getting pregnant often leaves women unable to pursue their careers and lives as they might’ve hoped for and wanted.

Naturally, some environmentalists, such as American educator Paul L Ehrlich, author of landmark book The Population Bomb, also advocate for government intervention to control human population, which would be one sure way to help the planet’s fragile and depleted ecosystems.

One of the most comprehensive works about the idea of restricting breeding is Peg Tittle’s book Should Parents be Licensed? Debating the Issues. It’s a balanced collection of essays by experts with various views on the subject.

There’s no question that some of the ideas of licensing parents make sense. After all, we don’t allow people to drive cars on crack cocaine. Why would we allow them to procreate if they want while on it? The goal with licensing parents is not so much to restrict freedoms, but to guarantee the maximum resources to those children that exist and will exist in the future.

Of course, the problem is always in the details. How could society monitor such a licensing process? Would governments force abortion upon mothers if they were found to be pregnant without permission? These things seem unimaginable in most societies around the world. Besides, who wants the government handling human breeding when it can’t do basic things like balance its own budgets and stay out of wars? Perhaps a nonprofit entity like the World Health Organization might be able to step in and offer more confidence.

I see near-term hope in what can be called a new transhuman-inspired birth control device  originally developed at MIT and now backed by funding from Microsoft founder Bill Gates. The implanted microchip lasts for up to 16 years — three times current implantable devices, including IUDs — and can deliver hormones into the body via an on-off switch on your mobile phone. It’s not a huge jump to imagine governments seeing opportunity in using this. Many children born into poverty end up costing taxpayers billions. Sadly, a high percentage of those same kids will end up on the streets, in gangs, or in prison after they become adults. Just as legalization of abortion has helped drive down crime rates, licensing parents would likely have the same effect.

The approximate  10,000  starving child deaths a day that that the aforementioned doctor cited come from various reports and studies, all of which point to the fact that well over 50 million kids have died due to hunger and malnutrition in the last 30 years. That’s a lot of kids.

What’s more, 15 percent  of kids in the US — the supposed wealthiest country in the world — suffer from hunger. A large portion of them are born to families that don’t have the resources to properly raise a child. After all, if you can’t feed a child, you probably shouldn’t have one. Licensing would’ve restricted many of those births until the parents were more able to deal with the challenges of procreation, which is undoubtedly the most intense and serious long term responsibility most human beings will face in their lives.

As a liberty-loving person, I have always eschewed giving up any freedoms. However, in some cases, the statistics are so overwhelming, that at the very least, given the coming era of indefinite lifespans and transhumanist technology, we must remain open-minded to consider how best to move the species forward to produce the happiest and healthiest children for the planet. Anything less will leave us with millions more preventable deaths and incalculable suffering of innocent kids.

Zoltan Istvan is a futurist, philosopher, journalist, and transhumanist. He is the author of the bestselling novel The Transhumanist Wager. 

TLB recommends you visit Wired for more articles and information.

Credit to Common Sense

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All Jews In Turkey: There Is An Enormous Red Dragon Coming After You.

Pretty soon the title of my article will no longer sound like myth. In a few years, many will become true believers that dragons and devils do exist. For now, few understand John’s warning, when the “great sign appeared in heaven” when “a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet” and when “she cried out in pain as she was about to give birth …” (Revelation 12:1-4)

What is on the horizon is yet another “sign that will appear in heaven”. It will be “an enormous red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns on its heads”. Its tail will “sweep a third of the stars out of the sky and will flung them to the earth”.



And the earth will turn evil. It will hunt down her children wherever they are found and will kill them.

Today this woman still travails. Her son has thousand thousands of His brethren; both adopted and real.

While His adopted brethren flea Mosul and Babylon, they head to the wilderness and into no mans land of the Medes (Kurdistan). They are unaware that Kurdistan will soon be engulfed by this red dragon and they too must find another hiding place in the wilderness. We sit here silently doing very little to help them.

Many of His literal brethren still live in the grip of this arising dragon.

“If you are a Jew in Turkey not even a funeral is peaceful” says Burak Bekdil who is based in Ankara, Turkey. Here is the rest of his story:

Just imagine a Turkish Jew having a legal dispute with a Muslim Turk and facing this judge in the courtroom…

As usual, apparently Muslims are allowed to kill Muslims as they like, only Jews are not.

Nearly three years ago, the Israeli news site Ynetnews.com published an opinion piece written by a Turkish-Jewish girl. She wrote: “…I have never had the need to discuss my Jewish identity, let alone my Israeli identity… We are a Jewish family with a connection to Israel, and as fit for a Turkish family we enjoy… freedom of religious rituals and worship. Holidays and vacations, Jewish schools, synagogues, and Jewish after-school clubs, all out in the open, and with no reason to fear… (Nov. 17, 2011)”

Just when I suspected that the author must be describing a Turkey other than the one I lived in, her final line confirmed that it was the same Turkey: “Despite my love for Turkey, I have chosen to remain anonymous, in case, well, you know…” Well, I knew…

Last month, Georgia and Jak Karako, a prominent, affluent Jewish couple, were found stabbed to death in their apartment in Istanbul’s upscale Ortakoy neighbourhood, amid President-elect Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s thundering speeches that, “Israel was worse than Hitler,” and regular attacks on Israel’s diplomatic missions in Ankara and Istanbul, including rocks thrown at — and hundreds of angry Turks trying to break into — the diplomatic compounds. The mayor of Ankara, Melih Gokcek, was quoted as saying: “We will conquer the consulate of the despicable murderers.”

Unfortunately, the Jewish couple had already been slain. But fortunately, this was not a crime motivated by anti-Semitism. The police quickly caught the suspects, an Uzbek couple who worked for the Karakos. They confessed to the killing. It was a simple criminal act like hundreds of others committed in Turkey everyday.

All the same, the poor couple’s funeral service at the Ulus Askenazi Jewish cemetery was revealing. In fear of an attack, tight security scanned every guest. If you are a Jew in Turkey, not even funeral is peaceful. All synagogues in Turkey — as well as Jewish (and some other non-Muslim) schools — are heavily protected.

Security for Jewish buildings is justified, not a sign of paranoia.

In March, Zafer Caglayan, the former economy minister who was forced to resign in the wake of a graft scandal (in which he was indicted for taking bribes to the tune of 52 million euros), showed up at a public rally, not looking like a man in embarrassment, but a man ready to insult.

In a not-so-subtle reference to the Muslim cleric Fethullah Gülen, whom he believes was behind the graft allegations, Caglayan said: “A Jew or an atheist or a Zoroastrian would do all these things to us. Shame on them if these things are done by those who claim to be Muslim. How can a Muslim do this?”



Zafer Caglayan (right), a former economy minister indicted for taking bribes, said of Muslim cleric Fethullah Gülen (left): “A Jew or an atheist or a Zoroastrian would do all these things to us. Shame on them if these things are done by those who claim to be Muslim. How can a Muslim do this?” (Image source: Wikimedia Commons)
In a sane country, Mr. Caglayan would have been prosecuted for that remark. In Turkey, he can be rewarded.

In April, a Turkish judge shared the following magnum opus on his Facebook account:

“We love you Recep Tayyip Erdogan
We love you because those who do not love you, do not love this nation;
Because Zionist Israel and its conspirators do not love you;
Because the world’s oppressed and Muslims love you;
Because you are one of us, one of your nation;
God save you and make you victorious,
For us…”

Earlier, upon Erdogan’s election victory on March 30, he had written that, “The losers (at the ballot box) are Zionists and their conspirators.” Just imagine a Turkish Jew having a legal dispute with a Muslim Turk and facing this judge in the courtroom…

There was one problem, though, about the judge’s logic. If all of those Turks who do not love Erdogan are Zionists, election results show that there are nearly forty-four million Zionists in Turkey!

And in July, during Hamas’s war on Israel, an Islamist columnist in daily Yeni Akit, Faruk Kose, addressed both Turkey’s Jewish community and Erdogan:

“You came here after you were expelled from Spain; you have lived comfortably among us for 500 years and gotten rich at our expense. Is this your gratitude — killing Muslims? Erdogan, demand that the community leader apologize!”

Practically, the man’s logic dictates that the Turkish Jews should apologize for the war in Gaza only because they are Jewish. But this thinking has found a partial response from Istanbul’s Jewish intellectuals who denounced being targeted over Israel’s recent operations in Gaza, describing attempts to hold them responsible for Israel’s policies as “racist.”

As usual, apparently Muslims are allowed to kill Muslims as they like, only Jews are not.

In an Aug. 29 letter, prominent figures including scholar and columnist Soli Özel, leftist writer Roni Margulies, economist Cem Behar and former radio host and activist Avi Haligua, emphasized that, “it is incumbent upon us to express an opinion on the attack on Gaza precisely to the same degree that it is on any other citizen of Turkey, no less, and certainly no more. … No citizen of this country is under any obligation to account for, interpret or comment on any event that takes place elsewhere in the world, and in which he/she has no involvement. There is no onus on the Jewish community of Turkey, therefore, to declare an opinion on any matter at all.”

Nonetheless, the group went on to say, “We wish to declare we are opposed to the Israeli state’s policies on Gaza, not because we are of Jewish origin, but because we are human… all of us are opposed to Israel’s aggression, militarism, expansionism and the violence it brings upon the Palestinian people.”

I am not sure if the girl who wrote to Ytnetnews.com three years ago still thinks of those “holidays and vacations, Jewish schools, synagogues, and Jewish after-school clubs, all out in the open, and with no reason to fear,” but I do hope that she is looking out for her safety.

P.S There Is An Enormous Red Dragon Coming After You. LEAVE WHILE YOU CAN BEFORE THE SECOND HOLOCAUST HAPPENS.

Credit to Shoebat.com

Vaccine Brain Damage Cover Up Implodes

ISIS Now Has A Navy, Launches Gunboat Attack Near Baghdad

First it was UN and US military hardware and artillery, second it was hijacked Syrian fighter jets, and now ISIS has 'commandeered' a Navy. As Reuters reports, Islamic State fighters attacked a riverside town north of Baghdad on Monday with gunboats and a car bomb, killing 17 people and wounding 54, a security source said.

By land...

And air...

And now water...

As Reuters reports,

The source said the attack on Dhuluiya, around 70 km (45 miles) from the capital, was carried out before dawn and continued for two hours before the militants were pushed back.

Among the dead in the attack, the largest of its kind in the area, were civilians and Iraqi forces. Most of the casualties were caused by the car bomb, which struck a market, the source said.

Dhuluiya is part of a belt of Sunni Muslim towns north of Baghdad where the hardline Sunni Muslim Islamic State has managed to wrestle some control, often aligning with local militia who distrust the Shi'ite-led government.

*  *  *

We anxiously await President Obama's Wednesday unveiling of the strategy to 'defeat' The Islamic State on land, and air, and now water...

Credit to Zero Hedge

MasterCard-backed biometric ID system launched in Nigeria

Nigeria's new national eID card.
amediaagency

Last week, Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan was one of the first citizens to receive a National eID card, a biometric identification card that will be rolled out to 13 million Nigerians in the near future. Although a handful of countries already use biometric identification systems, Nigeria's will be unique as its pilot program will be branded with MasterCard logos. The program will eventually be expanded to encompass the rest of the country's adult population, and the BBC says that all Nigerians will be required to have such a card by 2019 if they wish to vote in the country's upcoming elections.


FURTHER READING

EGYPT WANTS DIGITAL ID CARDS FOR 85 MILLION PEOPLE

If completed, the deployment would be one of the world's largest.As MasterCard stated in a press release, the eID cards come equipped with an EMV chip that allows card carriers to access prepaid financial services backed by Nigeria's local Access Bank and MasterCard. The justification for intertwining identity documentation with financial services from a private company like MasterCard is that many of Nigeria's citizens have never set up a bank account and therefore tend to be excluded from loan qualification.



The Nigerian government says that putting a payment platform on the ID cards will eventually let citizens receive and spend money from government institutions. As MasterCard writes, “Using the card as a payment tool, Nigerians can deposit funds, receive social benefits, save, or engage in many other financial transactions that are facilitated by electronic payments with the extra security assurance that biometric verification provides. They can also pay for goods and services and withdraw cash at millions of merchants and ATMS that accept MasterCard payment cards in Nigeria and in more than 210 countries and territories globally.” MasterCard has a number of similar partnerships with government institutions in countries like Pakistan and Turkey, as well as the city of Toronto. They all use prepaid cards from Mastercard to dole out government funds.

To qualify for the new cards, Nigerians 16 years and older must provide 10 finger prints, a facial photo, and an iris capture. The multi-function biometric cards are part of an effort to consolidate all the records of Nigerian citizens, including driver's licensing, voter registration, health insurance, tax information, and national pension commission information. The Nigerian Identity Management Commission also said that the cards will eventually be able to stand in for passports when the card holder is traveling between West African countries.

Nigeria attempted a similar identification scheme a decade ago but citizens voted against it. Attendees of a recent identification forum in Nigeria speaking to TV360Nigeria earlier this summer said that the lack of reliable identification in the country was a primary concern for the future. ZDNet blogger Adam Oxford wrote that Nigeria is now the largest economy on the African continent and “the government is now keen to throw off its international reputation as a hotbed of fraud dating back to the many email-based '419 scams' that originated from the country.”

Still, combining biometrics and MasterCard branding on a required identification document concerns some. "Centralizing and combining government databases makes it easy to link together pieces of information about an individual and build a near complete picture of someone’s life," Anna Crowe ofCivil liberties NGO Privacy International told ZDNet. "This type of capability is extremely invasive." MasterCard has said that it will not have access to any of the biometric information stored on the card—only to information about financial transactions.

Biometric ID cards have been promulgated in India, but attempts to link the cards with government subsidy payments have seen significant setbacks. Malaysia and Indonesia are two countries that have made significant strides in outfitting their citizens with biometric ID cards. Two years ago, Egypt also sought to make digital ID cards the norm for its citizens, although such a plan has not come to fruition.

Credit to Artechnica.com

Russia Prepares for Nuclear War

Apocalyptic Floods "submerged A Temple In Kashmir"